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Monday, 25 March 2013

Christopher Kane
never knows where his brain waves come from. Maybe that’s why after his
extraordinarily idea-packed collection he was telling people that he’d
been looking at an MRI brain scan while his synapses were firing away
about camouflage prints, big coats and jackets, kilts, feathers, velvet,
and lace. “Why, but why?” chorused the press corps surging around him
after the biggest show Kane’s staged in his seven-year career. “I don’t
know,” said the blue-eyed boy of London fashion, shrugging into the
dazzle of flashbulbs. “Things come to me. The brain works in mysterious
ways, doesn’t it?” Across the room, his sister Tammy was laughing: “We
always have this many ideas. We just wanted to put them all out there
this time, and not hold back.”

The reason for this new
show of confidence a cast of 60 models and a football-field-sized
venue was sitting in the front row: Kane’s new backer, François-Henri
Pinault, chairman and CEO of the French luxury group PPR, alongside his
wife Salma Hayek. “I’m really impressed, I must say. What he did is so
strong, sensual, modern,” Pinault beamed. “And there’s so much to work
on.”

The scaled-up collection had its upscale aspects, too,
though this wasn’t a show in which Kane abandoned his love of what he
calls a “feral wee girl,” or his Scottish roots. Perfect example: the
fact that the Christopher Kane biker jacket of the season is an oversize
bundle of street-glamorous fox fur. Or that his kilts, reiterated in
many ways throughout, are handmade by a traditional maker on the isle of
Orkney and the evening ones ended up with feathers sewn on the edge of
every knife pleat.

What will Kane souvenir-hunters rush toward
first? Probably his oversize, drop-shouldered coats and jackets, some of
which are fastened with kilt-buckles there’s something glamorously
tough about swimming around in a big shape like that. Or it might be a
blue feathered tulle sweater, or one of the bold lace dresses with
coiled metallic plastic neckpieces.

Kane trophy-hunting is a
seasonal sport for many young women, though some older ones will be able
to join the game with this collection. Fox-trimmed coats would work for
ladies. Or the beautiful claret and deep blue velvet dresses, with
bands of loopy lace inserted, perhaps. All this suggests that Kane, only
30, has a lot further to stretch to reach new markets and really get
going with accessories. That would all come under the formal corporate
title of “brand extension,” but still, what will underpin it is
something as emotional as the electricity of excitement generated by a
show like this one. Salma Hayek said it best when she was hugging Kane
after the show. “All those girls!” she cried. “You could tell they were
so proud to wear your clothes!”